Hydro Ban Makes Way Onto Ballot Council Lets Voters Decide Whether Races Outlawed

Voters will decide in November whether hydroplane racing is banned on Lake Coeur d’Alene, the City Council decided Tuesday.

Without a word of discussion, the council unanimously voted to let a proposed initiative appear on the general election ballot. The measure prohibits the races from returning to the waters below the city’s much-revered Tubbs Hill.

Protect Our Lakes Association successfully gathered more than 3,200 voter signatures on the initiative. That forced the council to adopt the measure by mid-July or allow the initiative to appear on the general election ballot in November.

Attorney Scott Reed, who helped draft the measure for Protect Our Lakes, gave the council the perfect out. “If you chose to enact it, that’s just fine with us,” Reed said.

Some of the 50 volunteers that gathered signatures encouraged even hydroplane racing supporters to sign petitions in support of the initiative on the grounds that it would allow the community to vote on the sport, Reed said. “We still think the community is with us,” he said.

But the measure can go on the November general election ballot for minimal extra cost, he said.

Reed also praised city attorney Jeff Jones for his work reviewing the language of the proposed ordinance and city clerk Susan Weathers for checking some 5,500 voters signatures. The Diamond Cup races were held in Coeur d’Alene from 1958 to 1968. The city showed thunderboats the door, however, after spectators turned the show into an excuse to party and riot.

In other business late Tuesday, the council reacted with surprise when asked to approve construction of a new $3 million library at 15th Street and Garden Avenue. That land is now home to Person Field, used for baseball.

Councilman Kevin Packard said he was under the impression the library was leaning toward remodeling and expansion of the library’s current home on Harrison Avenue. “I’d like a little bit of time to think about it,” he told members of the Coeur d’Alene Library Board and the Library Foundation Board. The council decided city staff and the General Services Committee will review the project, maintenance costs, and what the loss of Person Field means to the parks department before moving ahead.

Major Al Hassell also warned that Coeur d’Alene residents could face watering restrictions if the Locust Avenue well continues to malfunction and temperatures climb. Hassel wants people to voluntarily cut their water use as soon as it gets hot again to avert restrictions.

The Locust Avenue well supplies 20 percent of the city’s summer water supply. The pump there developed electrical complications Jan. 16 and was returned to the manufacturer.

After some effort, the well still isn’t operational and it could be at least 30 days before the problem is resolved. , DataTimes